Cardiovascular outcomes management and managed care contracting: experience from St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital and the Texas Heart Institute.

The organization and fee structure of health care in the United States continues to change rapidly from fee-for-service insurance plans to managed health care plans. To maintain quality care for patients and a place in the health care market, St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital and the Texas Heart Institute in Houston, Texas, must continually develop and modify their strategic agendas for cardiovascular services. The keys to that agenda are patient-centered care and treatments that positively affect patient outcome. We discuss here methods used to manage quality care for cardiovascular patients as efficiently and cost-effective as possible.